Game of Streams: HBO’s Schizophrenic Relationship With the Internet

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Not content with being HBO’s biggest hit in quite some time, Game of Thrones won another arguably more dubious plaudit in 2012, when it was named the most pirated TV show of the year. According to estimates by TorrentFreak, each episode of the show’s second season was illegally downloaded by over four million people internationally, with the majority of downloads in the week following the episode’s broadcast debut. The high level of piracy is due, certainly, to the show’s popularity, but also to the scarcity of online viewing options for content from the premium cable channel, something HBO is finally reconsidering.

Piracy almost sounds like a good problem to have, if you listen to some of the people involved with Game of Thrones; certainly David Petrarca, one of the show’s directors, appeared to suggest that the piracy was merely a sign of the show’s success during an appearance in Australia earlier this year — a comment he later walked back with a statement that he was “100 percent, completely and utterly against people illegally downloading anything.”

Earlier this week at the San Francisco premiere of Season 3, George R.R. Martin, author of the source novels for Game of Thrones, also told The Verge that “in a strange way [piracy] is a compliment,” adding during a question and answer session that “we have to contend with the fact that our show is the most pirated show in the world. I think a lot of that comes from Australia. They delay us six months there, and people won’t wait so they download it.” Martin noted that this may not be the case for much longer: “I think we’re moving towards a thing when there will be no more delays.”

At the same Q&A, Game of Thrones showrunner D.B. Weiss described the global Internet fanbase and their use of social media as “integral to our experience of the show,” and said that it would be hard to imagine what the show would be like without it. “Sometimes we’ll watch the episode and have the Twitter feed going at the same time, and it’s like being in a theater in a way. It brings the communal nature of the experience back after it disappeared for so long, at least with the television show.”

Game of Thrones’ digital existence, then, is somewhat imbalanced; the show’s creators enjoy the instant (and international) feedback the Internet offers, and the number of illegal downloads each episode demonstrates the Internet’s hunger for the show — but it’s a hunger that remains unaddressed by HBO.

Talking to Reuters earlier this week, HBO CEO Richard Plepler said that the current cable-subscriber-only HBO Go streaming system might be able to evolve with the help of “broadband partners,” potentially getting packaged into broadband subscriptions for an additional fee. Pleper described HBO Go as ” the right model,” but said they “would have to make the math work.”

The “math” has to do with the cost or additional fee for a hypothetical streaming subscription, which would need to be less than the cost of a cable subscription in order to be competitive with other streaming services like Netflix. But offering a cheaper streaming subscription might impel many viewers to leave cable altogether, a profound audience shift that could impact the bottom line of channels like HBO. Still frustrated and wondering why HBO resisted pressure from online campaigns to take your money? Plepler’s “math” is the probable reason why.

Fear of devaluing its own primary revenue streams — namely, cable subscriptions and DVD/Blu-ray sales — is another reason why HBO has yet to offer its shows through outside streaming services like Netflix, Amazon or Hulu. The question becomes, when will online fan demand for the show be large enough for HBO to feel confident enough about the math and give them what they want? If Pleper’s comments are any indication, perhaps sooner than later.